How to Build Your Own PC - Save A Buck And Learn A Lot  9  Chapter 4: Installing The Mainboard In The Case       9  Test Fitting and Installing the Mainboard

Test Fitting and Installing the Mainboard 1 Choosing and Installing Standoffs

The mainboard should fit with no problem. We need to watch out for extra standoffs that don’t line up with screw holes in the mainboard. Remove those standoffs or they will touch the bottom of the mainboard in undesirable locations. A standoff below a screw hole is acceptable (Figure 65 and Figure 66).

We might also want to add a few extra standoffs at other locations that match up with screw holes in the mainboard. In particular, in this build, we needed to add standoffs in the area around the sockets for the ATX power supply and the ribbon cable sockets for the floppy and hard drives. These standoffs help reduce stress to the mainboard when the ribbon and power cables are plugged in. We don’t want the board to bend under the force of plugging in a ribbon cable. Figure 65 shows a standoff near a ribbon socket.

Test Fitting and Installing the Mainboard 1 Choosing and Installing Standoffs